Art: Opening Nights

During the past decade, the U.S. State Department has tried to put its
best facade forward in building more than 30 new embassies and
consulates.

In The Hague, Marcel Breuer built a blunt, lantern-windowed structure as
stolid as a Dutch door. In Athens, Walter Gropius used the same
Pentelic marble that forms the Parthenon. Edward Durell Stone's
grillwork adorns New Delhi like a Hindu temple. In Baghdad, José Luis
Sert put up a tentlike structure fit for a caliph and cooled by
channels of river water. Saarinen warmed his Oslo embassy with teak
screens; Yamasaki lightened his Kobe consulate with airy...